


Weight

by cian1675



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anthropologist! Myungsoo, Gen, gravity defying dongwoo, myungsoo-centric - Freeform, side hogyu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 20:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/pseuds/cian1675
Summary: In a world where mass and weight are outdated concepts of the past, Myungsoo comes to know a man with no weight.





	Weight

**Author's Note:**

> For this prompt:
> 
> **Pairing(s)/Member:** Dongwoo/Myungsoo  
>  **Prompt:** Gravity-defying! Dongwoo AU. Myungsoo always wondered how Dongwoo jumps so high or does tricks with his body that seem to defy gravity. He had thought it's just because of Dongwoo's hyperness but one day he finds out Dongwoo's secret: Dongwoo literally has no weight.  
>  **Preferred Rating:** Any  
>  **Bonus:** Humor. Also, Dongwoo carries a lot of random things in his pockets and bag to weigh himself down so he won't end up floating above ground lol. Before Myungsoo found out Dongwoo's secret, he kept trying to help Dongwoo carry his things but Dongwoo won't let him (which makes Myungsoo kind of sad).  
>  **Please exclude:** -

Sometimes, when Myungsoo reads the old texts – the few they still have, preserved in the dusty old library of the national archive – he wonders what the world used to be like. They don’t have much knowledge of Before. Something clearly happened between Now and Before, but no one knows what exactly. If there were records, those, too, have been lost. Still, of what remains, there is enough for Myungsoo to glimpse that people in the past used to have formulas to calculate things like mass and weight. Things that tell him mass is a product of density and volume, and that weight is a product of mass and gravitational pull. None of the formulas make much sense to him, both because concepts like mass and weight are outdated and no longer used to measure things  and because Myungsoo is no Physics student.

 

//

 

Myungsoo first met Dongwoo in his office. It was a bad day at work, there were too many things he had due the next month and on top of that, a paper he was confident would be accepted by the anthropologist journal got rejected. Myungsoo was slumped in his chair, fingers pinched around the bridge of his nose when someone came into his office.

“Hello, is Sunggyu here?”

Myungsoo looked up, irritated by the intrusion and too-energetic voice.

“No, he’s in the next office.”

“Oh. I’m sorry for disturbing you!”

Myungsoo’s voice probably didn’t hide his obvious annoyance, and he expected the visitor – a young man with pink hair and a bright smile – to quickly get out. He didn’t mean to sound harsh, but his bad mood had him hoping his usual stern face combined with his curt words would send the man out of his office as soon as possible. It didn’t. Instead, the man dug into his pocket, fiddling for a moment before he placed something on Myungsoo’s desk.

“You look like you could use some sugar. Anyway, I’m sorry for my mistake! I’ll be off now. Hope you enjoy the candy. It’s my favourite.”

The man had beamed, before skipping out of Myungsoo’s office. Against the dull off-white walls, stacks of books and gloomy atmosphere of Myungsoo’s small office, he stood out too much. It wasn’t so much his clothes, which had more colours than Myungsoo could count, or his hair. Mostly it was just his aura, the way he carried himself. Bright. Maybe a little too bright. Myungsoo sagged back against his chair once the man left, eyeing the lollipop on his table for too long after. In the end, he unwrapped the shiny foil. The candy was sweet on his tongue, but not overly so.

//

 

There’s a bottle of beer in his hand, uncapped but only half-drank. Myungsoo tries not to spill it when bodies jostle him, and Sunggyu laughs.

“Are you okay?”

Myungsoo nods, avoiding another sweaty body moving past him.

“I know this is probably not your thing, but thanks for coming here with me to watch Howon dance.”

Myungsoo raises his bottle higher so people won’t knock the remaining contents onto his shirt.

“Sure,” he says. He doesn’t tell Sunggyu he has another reason why he’s here. Instead, he looks to the stage, waiting for the lights to come up, and tries to find the person he’s looking for.

“Oh hey, I didn’t realise Dongwoo’s in the same item as Howon.” Sunggyu already has his phone out, recording the performance. Myungsoo’s own phone battery is flat, so he just watches the dance, watches Dongwoo leap through the air effortlessly, legs spread in a jump split before he gracefully lands. He’s engrossed in the performance, following the smooth arcs made by Dongwoo’s arms when he turns, head turning to keep up with the various trick moves Dongwoo does to hype up the crowd, turning somersaults and flipping through the air.  It’s only later, after the lights go off and the next item move up does Myungsoo remember to ask what he’s been thinking about since he saw Sunggyu record the dance.

“Hyung, can you send the video to me?”

Sunggyu looks at him curiously.

“I didn’t know you are interested in dance.”

He’s not. Not really. Myungsoo drinks the rest of his beer to stall before he answers. “Well, it’s just been a long time since I actually did anything fun besides work. I thought it’ll be a nice memory to have.”

Sunggyu nods like it’s a reasonable explanation and not something Myungsoo cooked up in a few seconds. “Well, it’s true that you’ve not played much. You should relax and worry less sometimes. Work is important but it’s not everything, you know.”

Myungsoo tilts his head slightly, neither an acknowledgement nor a refute. Sunggyu pats his back.

“Anyway, your steps seem lighter today. I guess it was a good idea I dragged you here huh?”

Myungsoo raises his brows. “I thought you dragged me here because you don’t have actual friends.”

Sunggyu pushes his shoulder. “Yah, I have Howon.”

Myungsoo rolls his eyes. “He’s your boyfriend. It doesn’t count.”

 

//

 

Myungsoo had weighed himself once. It was in a museum where they had interactive displays and a weighing machine from Before. He had stepped onto the scale, the metal making a weird grunt before digital red numbers showed on the display.

_98kg._

He had no idea what “kg” meant, or what the significance of the numbers were. All he knew is that Moonsoo, who was the same volume as him, 62nmw, only weighed 41kg.

“Is there something wrong with the machine?” Myungsoo had asked. The exhibition staff had looked at him like he asked an odd question, so he pointed to the signboard beside. “It says here that weight is proportional to volume.”

“Ah yes. That was the case Before. It’s no longer the case Now.”

Myungsoo looked at his mum, who was standing on the scale then, weighing 82kg, and his dad who had gotten a 75 on the scale earlier. He knew his mum was 55nmv and his dad 67nmv, because they just did the volume scan at the gallery entrance earlier. The numbers didn’t make sense together.

“So what does weight even mean?”

The exhibition staff rubbed his chin, shrugging. “We don’t know. It’s not a unit of measurement we use anymore.”

 

//

 

Myungsoo’s waiting backstage, or as close to backstage as they can get without performer passes. Sunggyu’s checking his hair in his phone’s reflection, a rare moment of vanity, and Myungsoo’s half in a daze when he feels arms around his shoulders.

“Hi Dongwoo,” he says without turning.

Dongwoo loops his arms tighter around Myungsoo’s shoulder, not caring that Myungsoo’s clearly taller than him or that it looks awkward. Behind him, Howon raises his brows, then heads for Sunggyu.

“How do you know it’s me?” Dongwoo asks, bouncing a little and Myungsoo slouches so it’ll be easier for Dongwoo to keep his arm around his neck.

“You make a lot of noise when you walk.”

“But Dongwoo has the lightest steps of anybody I know,” Sunggyu points out.

Howon gives him a bored look like he’s slow. “It’s not his steps. Have you seen how much stuff he has in his pockets? They always jingle when he walks. And not to mention his bag. That monster is heavy and who even knows what’s inside.” Howon shudders, and Myungsoo laughs.

“Yeah, his bag sounds like it holds way too many things. I wonder if his bag has the Undetectable Extension Charm like Hermione’s did.” Everyone gives him a blank look at that, so Myungsoo adds, “It’s a thing in one of the old texts. Expandable spells… ah, never mind.”

Sunggyu makes a face like he’s half-amused and half-disappointed that Myungsoo’s mentioning work related things again, but Dongwoo just ruffles his hair. “That sounds cool. It’ll be useful to have expandable space in my bag. Imagine how much I can put in it!”

Howon snorts. “Hyung, I think your bag is already heavy enough without trying to put more things into it.”

Myungsoo lifts Dongwoo’s bag with a hand, not expecting it to be true, but it is.

“Do you carry bricks in there?” Myungsoo frowns at Dongwoo’s green backpack, vaguely concerned. “Isn’t this too heavy to be carrying around?”

“It’s fine,” Dongwoo replies, jumping a few times to prove the bag isn’t heavy. Myungsoo’s not sure if that’s proof of that the bag’s lightness or Dongwoo’s strength. He doesn’t get to ask, because Dongwoo’s suddenly too close in front of him, all wide eyes and curious like he just thought of something.

“What are bricks?”

 

//

 

There was once Myungsoo overheard his parents in the middle of the night. He had been blurrily walking to the kitchen to get water, but somehow his body instinctively ducked behind the wall when he heard his mother whispering.

 “Honey, do you think Myungsoo worries too much? He was asking me about career options the other day, and he’s only fifteen.”

 “But isn’t that good? Our son is thinking ahead!”

His father sounded puzzled, and Myungsoo was too. But then his mother said, “But he’s thinking of getting into anthropology and there aren’t much options in that field… don’t you think it’ll be hard for him if he goes down that path?” and he suddenly knew why she had a slight frown the whole time he was talking to her in the afternoon. He didn’t need to hear anymore, so Myungsoo turned to go back into his room.

(The thing is, if Myungsoo had stayed a little longer to heard his father’s reply – “Honey, it sounds like you are the one that’s fretting, not Myungsoo” – then maybe he wouldn’t spend the next day or two replaying his mother’s words in his head.)

 

//

 

Myungsoo’s not in his office during lunch break for once. Unfortunately, and somewhat ironically, he’s not exactly on his way to lunch either. As his stomach grumbles, a more normal occurrence for Myungsoo on weekdays than is probably healthy, he checks his watch, estimating that he may have enough time to grab takeout before lunch time is up. Just his luck that Howon’s dance studio is on the other side of town. He huffs, tapping a finger on his steering wheel as the traffic slows again. The thing is, Sunggyu had pulled in all the favours Myungsoo owed him to get him to take something to Howon. Normally he wouldn’t bother, would ask Sunggyu to do that himself, but Sunggyu had a meeting he couldn’t skip so he had ended up relenting.

Five minutes past lunch later – the traffic was worse than Myungsoo had thought – Myungsoo’s in the dance building. He spots a studio with Howon’s name on it. Without thinking, Myungsoo knocks on the door, pushing it open before he hears an answer. In hindsight, he’ll realise how that was probably a bad move, but in that moment, Myungsoo’s just tired and antsy and hungry, and he’s pretty sure he remembered Sunggyu saying Howon has an individual studio so he didn’t even think it would be an issue.

But of course, that’s exactly what happens. Because the half-naked guy back-facing him isn’t Howon; the pink hair is a dead giveaway. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that Dongwoo’s _floating_ , both his feet a good three inch above ground. Myungsoo’s already backing out the doorway before he has time to think, but he’s not fast enough, because just then, Dongwoo turns.

“Howon, you’re back–”

Dongwoo freezes.

“M-myungsoo?”

Shit.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was supposed to be a oneshot, but I don't think I can finish the whole thing before May 30th which is this month's deadline for the ficfest, so have the first chapter. My current plan is to finish this in 3 chapters, we'll see how it goes. It ended up heavier (no pun intended) than the prompt, but I hope it's interesting so far. I'll love to know what you think :)


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